Nancy Knowlton is a coral reef biologist and a former Sant Chair for Marine Science[1] at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

She was a professor at Yale University, then joined the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama.

She was named an Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellow in 1999 [2] and was elected to the Board of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2008.

She is the author of the book Citizens of the Sea which was published by National Geographic in 2010[4] to celebrate the end of the Census of Marine Life.

In 2011, Knowlton received the 17th Annual Heinz Award with special focus on the environment.